A soccer tournament two years in the making was cut short for a group of Halifax students, thanks to Hurricane Gonzalo. But the players and their parents are now thanking a prominent Montreal family for helping them escape the storm.
The 15 students from Armbrae Academy flew to Bermuda for the tournament but excitement quickly turned to anxiety after their arrival.
“It started when we heard the news obviously that Hurricane Gonzalo was heading towards Bermuda,” says parent Rose Scott-Lincourt.
“At first, I started panicking a little,” admits student Ryan Davis.
The students and their chaperones kept a close eye on the weather forecast and eventually decided to head home before the storm hit the island.
“We decided as a group that it was too dangerous and that we should head home,” says David.
However, they quickly discovered getting home wouldn’t be easy.
“The flights were all booked, Air Canada, every one coming out of Bermuda until Sunday,” says Scott-Lincourt.
However, one of the players on another team is a member of the well-known Saputo Family, which owns a Montreal-based Dairy company.
The family chartered a flight to get their team out of Bermuda, and then filled all the extra seats with players from other Canadian teams.
“Our choices were very limited and they made a dream come true for me,” says parent Esther Ghosn.
“We were all concerned and thrilled that our team was able to be included in that flight,” says parent John Gale.
The students landed in Montreal Wednesday evening and arrived in Halifax Thursday morning.
Administrators and parents say they are relieved the students were able to escape the storm, but they are disappointed they had to miss the tournament. The trip had been in the works for nearly two years and the students had only been in Bermuda for two days when they were told they would have to leave.
“We were mostly disappointed we were leaving because we didn’t get to play soccer,” says student Alex Whitman.
“It was pretty sad,” says Davis. “We were all very tired and we weren’t very happy to leave.”
“I’ll be honest, for a slight minute I said do we try to stick this out because they’ve invested so much time preparing for this, and those tournaments are always great experiences, but at the end of the day, you have to go with the safety,” says Gary O’Meara, the headmaster at Armbrae Academy.
As of Thursday around 3 p.m. AT, Gonzalo was a category 4 hurricane hurtling towards Bermuda.
However disappointing, parents and students agree flying back to Canada was the right decision.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
